The article discusses the role of the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) in generating behavior, particularly in the context of attention and saccade planning. LIP is proposed to act as a priority map, where objects are represented by activity proportional to their behavioral priority. This map combines bottom-up visual inputs, such as rapid visual responses, with top-down signals like saccade plans. The spatial location of the peak in the priority map is used by the oculomotor system to guide saccades and by the visual system to guide attention. The authors present evidence that LIP neurons respond to both bottom-up and top-down inputs, and that these inputs are integrated to form a priority map. The map is updated around the time of each saccade, ensuring that both the oculomotor and visual systems have a spatially appropriate priority map to guide behavior. The article also explores the relationship between LIP activity and covert attention, as well as the generation of saccades, and discusses other findings related to decision-making and nonspatial information processing in LIP.The article discusses the role of the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) in generating behavior, particularly in the context of attention and saccade planning. LIP is proposed to act as a priority map, where objects are represented by activity proportional to their behavioral priority. This map combines bottom-up visual inputs, such as rapid visual responses, with top-down signals like saccade plans. The spatial location of the peak in the priority map is used by the oculomotor system to guide saccades and by the visual system to guide attention. The authors present evidence that LIP neurons respond to both bottom-up and top-down inputs, and that these inputs are integrated to form a priority map. The map is updated around the time of each saccade, ensuring that both the oculomotor and visual systems have a spatially appropriate priority map to guide behavior. The article also explores the relationship between LIP activity and covert attention, as well as the generation of saccades, and discusses other findings related to decision-making and nonspatial information processing in LIP.